The Journal for Molecular Therapy has just published an interesting article talking about having successfully made a vaccine which blocks cocaine from having any effect when taken, for up to 14 weeks ( the period of the trial on mice so far ).

The vaccine was developed by combining part of the common cold virus with a particle that mimics cocaine.
Of course this is a very exciting tool to help addicts in coping with their addiction problems. We already have a good drug to block the effect of heroin ( Naltrexone ) but I hadn’t expected something to be able to help with Cocaine so soon.

All the same it’s important to remember that this is a blocker for the effects of taking Cocaine, not a treatment for the nature of addiction. Even though we have a successful blocker for heroin, it hasn’t proved to be anything like a treatment, in spite of having been around for over a decade.

People who have addiction problems have so many other psychological, social and emotional issues that need to be helped at the same time, the biology of it is just the start. It is very tempting for addicts themselves to imagine that their problem is simply a physical since the other issues can feel overwhelming. Society too tends to get very excited about ways of controlling addict from without, rather than have to face the problems within.

I suspect that in the coming weeks we will see newspaper articles indicating that there is a vaccine “against” addiction and herald it as some sort of cure, which clearly isn’t the case. None the less, I’m still sure this will still prove to be very helpful.

Robin